The present invention relates in general to a liquid enteral composition for providing nutrition, either as a supplement, or as a complete nutrition, with a high energy content.
The human body requires energy to perform its vital functions, such as blood circulation, immune processes, respiration processes, etc. Energy can be supplied in the form of calories. Calories are typically supplied by the consumption of food. Calorie sources can be classified into three categories: proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Proteins can provide the body with support for muscular activity, fats can provide the body with stored energy, and carbohydrates can supply the body with immediate energy. Essential vitamins and minerals are necessary to help regulate the processes of the human body.
A person should receive a proper balance of nutrients to sustain health, otherwise, malnutrition can result in a variety of physical complications. Moreover, it is imperative that the support provided be adapted to the needs of a person. For example, patients who are ill, require increased and specialized nutritional support. An increase in specific nutrients can help the body recover from a particular stress placed upon it, such as sport, emotional and labour stress, illness, medical surgery, malnutrition, etc.
Nutritional needs can also change with a person's age. For example, elderly persons show a decrease in the amount of energy their body requires from fat sources.
In this respect, it is submitted that in the context of this application, an elderly person is a person of the age of 50 or more, in particular of the age of 55 or more, more in particular of the age of 60 or more, more in particular of the age of 65 or more. This rather broad definition takes into account the fact that the average age varies between different populations, on different continents, etc. Most developed world countries have accepted the chronological age of 65 years as a definition of ‘elderly’ or older person (associated with the age at which one may begin to receive pension benefits), but like many westernized concepts, this does not adapt well to e.g. the situation in Africa. At the moment, there is no United Nations (UN) standard numerical criterion, but the UN agreed cut-off is 60+ years to refer to the older population in Western world. The more traditional African definitions of an elder or ‘elderly’ person correlate with the chronological ages of 50 to 65 years, depending on the setting, the region and the country.
Because at least certain persons may not receive their required nutritional support from a normal diet, or may not be able to eat normal food, nutritional compositions, such as nutritional supplements and complete nutrition have been designed to provide nutritional support to persons in need thereof. This nutrition can be directed towards a particular type of nutritional support. For example, a supplement may provide a person with additional calories for increased energy. Although these supplements provide a certain amount of nutritional support, it is in the best interests to provide a nutritional composition having increased nutritional value for a specific nutritional requirement. In the above examples of elderly persons and ill patients, it is desired to provide nutritional liquid compositions having increased energy as well as increased protein per unit dosage.
In this regard, although an elderly person's energy needs may be reduced, their ability to consume products may also be diminished. For example, they may have difficulty consuming a product due to, e.g., swallowing difficulties, or due the too large amount of product they need to consume to meet the daily intake of nutrients. Hence, compliance is not optimal, and often, the intake is suboptimal, leading to suboptimal nourishment.
Further, certain disease states or conditions may require restrictions on the diet a patient consumes. For example, renal patients may have fluid restrictive diets.
Also, a number of patients need nutrition in the smallest volume of liquid. These patients may be cachectic patients or persons suffering from end-stage AIDS, cancer or cancer treatment, severe pulmonary diseases like COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), tuberculosis and other infection diseases or persons that experience severe surgery or trauma like burns. Furthermore, persons suffering from disorders in the throat or mouth such as oesophageal cancer or stomatitis and persons having problems with swallowing like dysphagic persons, require special liquid, low-volume nutrition. Also, persons suffering from reduced appetite and/or loss of taste will benefit from a low-volume liquid nutritional composition.
Therefore, a need exists for improved enteral compositions, with an increased amount of protein and calories per unit volume for an elderly person or ill patient.
However, increasing calories and/or proteins in a nutritional liquid composition may increase the overall viscosity of the composition. This can make the liquid nutritional composition difficult to consume or administer, and can also diminish the taste of the nutritional composition. Furthermore, technical difficulties exist in producing a stable, in particular a shelf-stable nutritional liquid composition having a high content of proteins.
The problem of the present invention is therefore to provide a stable, attractive, liquid enteral composition for providing nutrition, either as a supplement, or as a complete nutrition, with a high energy content, to a person, in particular to an elderly person or an ill patient.